Elephant in zoo program found killed in Africa

San Diego  San Diego Zoo officials expressed dismay Wednesday that an elephant being tracked in Africa as part of a multicountry conservation program had been shot and killed.

The elephant, named Kachikau, is one of three highlighted in the zoo’s Project Elephant Footprint program that raises funds for conservation efforts.

Zoo scientist Dr. Michael Chase, who is in Africa, has been leading a study on elephant herd movements between the southern African countries of Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He had attached a GPS collar on Kachikau, a 30-year-old elephant with a 2-year-old calf who served as matriarch of her eight-member herd.

The herds move in and out of national parks into areas where they are in danger of being killed for damaging crops and property.

Chase and his researchers found Kachikau’s body four days after her GPS signal showed she had stopped moving after leading her herd out of Botswana, a zoo news release said. The release did not say when the body was found. Chase was unable to find the rest of the herd or the calf.

Botswana is home to about 150,000 elephants, about 30 percent of the total elephant population in Africa.

The zoo and Elephants Without Borders, which Chase founded, have started a program called Elephant Conservation and Community Outreach Farming to help farmers improve security of their crops and reduce elephant kills.